Every great story begins with something small—an encounter, a message, or even a shared screen. Ours began quietly too, not with fireworks, but with formulas and Zoom meetings. It was 2021, and I was enrolled in a Differential Equations class at Universitas Sriwijaya. Everything was held online due to the pandemic, and that’s when I first saw his name pop up—Khairu Agus Wijaya, a calm and focused student from Merauke, Papua, who was joining through the Merdeka Student Exchange Program (PMM). We weren’t the only ones with cameras on, and there were no breakout rooms, but there were small-group discussions that consisted of four people. But somehow, amidst the grid of faces and silence between lectures, we began to notice each other. Our first interaction wasn’t even in Indonesian—it was in Mandarin, a language we both happened to be learning. That small spark led us to chat more through the class WhatsApp group. We began exchanging ideas about assignments, encouraging each other before...
Everything is starting from the beginning and small things